Yes, dear friends, I have at long last been awarded my PHD

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It’s been a long hard pull and the work was, more often than not, just exhausting. It all started with observations, samplings, composition, engineering, planning, and finally, but not least, the work. The certificate was the culmination of years of work in a hazardous, demanding, mostly cold, hostile environment, but I have prevailed.

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The Board of Regents

By virtue of the authority vested in it by law

And on the recommendation of its members,

Does hereby confer upon

Paul Barton

Who has satisfactorily completed the prescribed programs for

The degree of

PHD

In the study of Snow Removal

With all the rights, privileges, and honors thereunto appertaining

This Twenty-Seventh day of January, Two Thousand Fourteen

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This certificate is to verify that said above individual has , in the process of snow removal,

Invierno en la casa de Pablo

More artwork from the frost fairies The thermometer reads -4 F

I feel like I’m living the movie “Groundhog’s Day”. I wake up each morning and it’s sunny for a while. I clear the driveway. Then it becomes windy and cloudy, and after about 4p.m. it begins to snow. I wake up the next morning and it’s sunny for a while……….

This will be a coffee table when it’s finished Just finished – foot rest for the family room chair

Well, that’s all for tonight folks. It’s time to finish reading my book and then drag my weary bones off to bed. I’m so glad that Spring is only about 2 1/2 months away!!! Where’s the beach???

May your troubles only be as worrisome as your happiest dreams

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He rolled sleepily out of bed and trudged down the hallway to turn up the heat on the thermostat. It was cold in the house. It always was this time of morning, this time of year. He turned the heat down every night, thinking to save on his utility bill. Crawling lazily back into the warm bed, he waited for the heat to make the house bearable and closed his eyes.

Footprints…, they kept appearing in his thoughts, in his dreams. What was the connection? What did they mean…, and what about those strange dreams? With a big sigh, he opened his eyes again, rolled out of bed and methodically started another day. Make the bed, shower, shave, brush teeth, comb hair, get dressed and get out the door…, oh, and let’s not forget coffee. He couldn’t face the day without at least one cup. All in 30 minutes? Impossible? Not for him. It had been his routine since he was in the military. Back then revelie had been at 5:30 – hit the deck running, and be ready for inspection by 6:a.m. In those habits he had changed little over the years. Enough reverie about revelie…, time to grab some coffee and get to work!

On his drive into the city, he usually had listened to a radio news station to get a glimpse of what had happened around the world and any local news but today he had tuned to a music station, a country music station, totally unusual for him. He was lost in thoughts and melody when she suddenly appeared right in front of the car, too close for him to have a chance to stop, but he slammed on the brakes anyway, skidding the car sideways in the road. There had been no sound of impact or anything to indicate he had hit anyone, or anything but he was still shaken and heart was pounding as he got out of the car. A quick examination showed no damage to the car anywhere, only skid marks on the road where he had braked and skid. Everything looked weirdly alright…, until he walked in front of the car and saw them – footprints…, wet footprints leading out to the middle of the road and then disappearing. He crawled back into the car and pulled to the side of the road, suddenly feeling drained, almost sick. What in the hell is it with these footprints ? Just then a song came on the radio, by a singer he’d never heard before, a song he’d never heard before.

Footprints in the sand, footprints in my heart

Don’t you understand, I was yours right from the start

I will keep on trying…, crying…, trying

Til I reach that place where your love is lying

Waiting there for me to hold again.

As the song ended the DJ announced…, “This dedication went out for the guy sitting along State Line Road from the ‘Fallen Angel’, folks”. He took a deep breath and rubbed his eyes. Wait! I’m sitting on State Line Road ! I just really don’t need this. Fallen Angel…, what does that mean? Who is that? He put the car in gear and continued to work. With the events of the morning, the rest of the day became a muddled confusion.

Life’s getting too serious around here so I thought I’d lighten it up a bit.

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Two elderly gentlemen from a retirement center were sitting on a bench under a tree when one turns to the other and says: ‘Slim, I’m 83 years old now and I’m just full of aches and pains. I know you’re about my age. How do you feel?’Slim says, ‘I feel just like a newborn baby.’‘Really!? Like a newborn baby!?’‘Yep. No hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants.’

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Morris, an 82 year-old man, went to the doctor to get a physical.A few days later, the doctor saw Morris walking down the street with a gorgeous young woman on his arm.A couple of days later, the doctor spoke to Morris and said, ‘You’re really doing great, aren’t you?’Morris replied, ‘Just doing what you said, Doc: ‘Get a hot mamma and be cheerful.”The doctor replied, “Morris, I said, ‘You’ve got a heart murmur; be careful”.